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Barcelona terror attack: Spain hunts for van driver

Barcelona terror attack: Spain hunts for van driver

Spain mounts a sweeping anti-terror operation after a suspected Islamist militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people before fleeing, in what police suspect was one of multiple planned attacks.

Video shows horrific aftermath in Barcelona

Two dead in Belgian terror raid

Belgian police say they have foiled a 'terrorist attack on a grand scale' after a raid in the east of the country that left two people dead.

A third man was arrested during the operation, Eric Van Der Sypt added, saying there was, for the time being, no direct connection to last week's attacks in Paris. No police were injured in the operation, he said.

"The suspects immediately and for several minutes opened fire with military weaponry and handguns on the special units of the federal police before they were neutralised," he said. The incident in Belgium comes as Europe remains on alert a week after Islamists killed 17 people in Paris.

Belgian police launched a "jihadist-related" anti-terrorism operation in the eastern town of Verviers.
Photo: AFP

Judiciary officials confirmed the counter-terrorism operation had taken place near the centre of the town, in the east of the country between the city of Liege and the German border.

Residents reported gunfire and blasts.

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"I heard a sort of explosion, followed by several gunshots," one local told broadcaster RTBF during the battle. "For the moment, I cannot tell you any more because I don't dare go out to see what is happening."

"This operational cell of about 10 people, some of whom had returned from Syria, was on the point of launching significant terrorist attacks in Belgium," Thierry Werts of the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said in Brussels.

"During the search, certain suspects immediately opened fire at special forces of the police with automatic weapons. They opened fire for several minutes. Two suspects were killed and a third was arrested."

Another witness said he saw two young men apparently of North African origin "dressed all in black carrying a bag of the same colour", adding that the pair looked terrified.

The men targeted in a former bakery in Verviers had been under surveillance since returning from Syria a week ago and were believed to be about to spring an attack, prosecutors said.

Belgian investigators said earlier Thursday they are probing whether an arms dealer sold weapons used in the Paris attacks, after confirming supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly sold the man a car belonging to his partner Hayat Boumeddiene.

There was no immediate confirmation of any link between the Coulibaly investigation and Thursday's raid.

The man, Neetin Farasula, from the airport city of Charleroi in French-speaking southern Belgium, is in detention on suspicion of a possible link to the weapons used in the Paris attacks.

Belgian prosecutors are working with French authorities to establish any "possible link" to last week's attacks at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

Coulibaly, who was killed by police on Friday, is also believed to have shot dead a policewoman in another Paris attack.

Spain meanwhile opened an investigation Thursday into Coulibaly and Boumeddiene's visit to Madrid shortly before the attacks.

RTBF said it was an operation intended to check on suspected radicals -- one of several being conducted against people believed to have returned to Belgium after taking part in the Syrian civil war.

Belgium has seen significant radical Islamist activity among its Muslim population.

Local media said gunshots and several explosions were heard on a residential street in Verviers near the railway station and one photo posted by a witness on Twitter showed police vehicles and ambulances blocking the street.